Going Digital - iPad versus Macbook

[Magnetica]

Just looking for some advice. I am going to go to an all digital subscription from January.

What is the best comic reader to use on MacBook?

I don't have enough storage on my iPad, so am assuming I am going to have to manage where files are stored between a MacBook and iPad. How easy is it to do this?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

[Jim_Campbell]

I don't have enough storage on my iPad, so am assuming I am going to have to manage where files are stored between a MacBook and iPad. How easy is it to do this?

I download my digital Prog/Megs on my MBP and then drop the PDFs of my Prog/Meg into a folder in the iCloud section of the Finder set up for Chunky (my comic reader of choice on the iPad Pro). The files 'live' on my MBP and in 'the Cloud', and Chunky should download the files as you want to read them, I think... can't speak to other reader apps, and IndigoPrime will almost certainly know more about this.

[IndigoPrime]

That's pretty much what I'd recommend. My situation is slightly different. We have a router that makes it absurdly simple to turn any HDD/SSD into a sort-of NAS (as in, you literally have to plug it into the router – we have a 2TB HDD right now). So my comics live on our network, and I can access them from Chunky on iPad or Finder (or Transmit) on Mac. But iCloud works too, assuming you've space on your account.

On iPad, despite Chunky having now seemingly been abandoned (although it still works), it remains by far the best comics reader on the platform. On Mac, I favour Simple Reader, which is fast and simple for reading individual issues.

[Definitely Not Mister Pops]

It's bad luck to say m*cb00k, you should refer to it as the Scottish laptop.

[Magnetica]

A sad day. I've just cancelled my physical subscription to the Prog and Meg. Digital subscription here I come.

[Southstreeter]

As a general rule (not just progs) I stick everything on iCloud, so it's easily accessible on all my apple devices. Extra storage is fairly cheap if you need it.

[Magnetica]

As a general rule (not just progs) I stick everything on iCloud, so it's easily accessible on all my apple devices. Extra storage is fairly cheap if you need it.

That's good advice. Dumb question: when I download something in the 2000AD app, I don't see an option as to where to store it. It just seems to store in in the app on my iPad and doesn't give me an option as to where to put it.

Or are you downloading from the website and putting into iCloud and then reading using for example Chunky?
But even doing that, it's not clear to me how to move stuff to iCloud and free up storage off my iPad. How do I do that?

[broodblik]

With the 2000ad app it stores it on the iPad internally.  What I do is to read the prog/meg on the app but I also download a CBZ version as a reference as a local backup (which then can be uploaded to iCloud as well)

[Magnetica]

Yes I want to read on the 2000AD app on my iPad. My concern is doing that will eat into my iPad storage, as I have to press the download button to do so. Or is there a way around that?  (I've worked out how to get a backup copy - but guess that's only necessary in case Rebellion go bust 😱).

[Trooper McFad]

Yes I want to read on the 2000AD app on my iPad. My concern is doing that will eat into my iPad storage, as I have to press the download button to do so. Or is there a way around that?  (I've worked out how to get a backup copy - but guess that's only necessary in case Rebellion go bust 😱).

I have this scenario as my tablet was filled up. So what I have done after a year of progs & Megs is to clear the app storage on my tablet and re launch the app and only downloaded the last prog and Meg. Everything is still there if you want to go back. It's not ideal and possibly the ICloud is the most ideal. But it works for me.

[IndigoPrime]

Or are you downloading from the website and putting into iCloud and then reading using for example Chunky? But even doing that, it's not clear to me how to move stuff to iCloud and free up storage off my iPad. How do I do that?

With Chunky, anything within the app itself is stored locally. So to free up storage, you just delete items from the local library. (The creator was at one point working on a fully cloud-based version of the app, but I think that's now been canned, sadly.)

[Magnetica]

Having now received my physical Progs, one thing I have noticed comparing them to the digital ones, is how much darker everything looks in the physical Progs. So much so that little details are missed unless you look closely. And the colours look different - that was especially noticeable on the first page of The Out in the Xmas Prog, where in the digital Prog the background looks purple and in the physical Prog it's more blue and Dredd's uniform in Robin Smith drawn story looks more black in digital and more blue in the physical. Also the colours in Enemy Earth in the previous Prog look washed out in the physical version.

So much to my surprise I actually prefer the look of the digital Progs, even though nothing beats actually holding them in your hands.

[IndigoPrime]

Printing blues and purples is a nightmare. Always has been. And printing more broadly can have issues that drastically alter the look of the artwork. Anyone who owns both print and digital versions of Last God/Fellspyre Chronicles will very much know what I mean.

With digital, though, you do need a device that works for you. For some people, a phone will do. But for me, I'd struggle on anything less than an 11in tablet, and the 12.9 iPad Pro is a sweet spot – but it's a colossally expensive (and quite weighty) device.